Streetsblog USA

Christy Kwan, interim director of the Alliance for Biking and Walking, joins us this week to talk about the alliance's bi-annual national Benchmarking Report. It's full of great information and Christy shares how local activists might put it to good use in their communities (and why they might not want their cities to score too well in the rankings).

For every transportation agency trying to innovate and update policies for the 21st century, there are several thoughtlessly widening highways like it's still 1956.

"What you measure is what you get," the saying goes.

Living in a sprawling area, like Atlanta, or a compact one, like Boston, doesn't just affect how you get around. A new study published in the Journal of Landscape and Urban Planning suggests it may also have a significant impact on your chances to escape poverty.

What is Vision Zero? Simply put, it's a recognition that traffic fatalities are preventable, and a commitment to ensure that no one is killed in traffic. Cities that adopt Vision Zero set out to end traffic deaths within a specific time frame.

On its page commemorating the 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower signing the Federal Aid Highway Act, the Federal Highway Administration offers a "Then and Now" chart showing how much America has changed since 1956. It's a little corny, but in 1956 Chuck Berry was a chart-topper, hula hoops were the new craze, and Cold War tensions were very high. The point is the country has changed a lot since then.

In 2014, 170 people were killed while walking on New Jersey streets, accounting for 31 percent of total traffic deaths in the state (about double the national share). In addition, 13 people were killed while biking that year.

Last year Congress passed a multi-year transportation bill. Like previous bills, it gives tens of billions of dollars to states every year to spend with almost no strings attached. How much of this federal funding will state DOTs devote to expensive, traffic-inducing highway projects that further entrench car dependence and sprawl?

Does it make sense for cash-strapped transit agencies to spend millions of dollars on park-and-ride facilities and then give those parking spaces away for free?